


When Mercs And Quarries Don’t Mix

by shepardly



Series: Nora ‘n MacCready [2]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-07 22:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12242145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shepardly/pseuds/shepardly
Summary: Clearing out a quarry doesn’t go well for MacCready.





	When Mercs And Quarries Don’t Mix

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shrapnel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shrapnel/gifts).



> This one goes to Shrapnel because without them it would have stayed on my G drive forever because I couldn’t get the ending right. TY & ily 5ever

The quarry seemed to contain nothing but raiders and cryptic notes left on paper and terminals alike, yet Nora insisted on investigating further.

“The best loot is always hiding behind the last door at the very bottom.” Nora had informed him, as if MacCready didn't know that already.

“Is it worth this, though?” MacCready gestured to the filthy, waist deep water that they would have to cross before proceeding. The raiders had had a board and plywood bridge set up, but it had been destroyed either accidentally or intentionally when the fighting had started.

“What, you scared of a little water?”

MacCready glared at her.

“Is it the wet socks?” Nora had mastered the art of innocent and clueless expressions, but MacCready wasn't fooled. “Or the mild case of radiation poisoning?”

Seeing that she was not going to change her mind and unwilling to encourage her any more, MacCready put his rifle on his shoulder to keep it high and dry and waded across. 

“Make sure you check every container!” Nora shouted across. “No stone unturned! I'll stand watch over here!”

“Would you just get your smart ass over here?” MacCready’s exasperation got a chuckle out of her and she hopped in to wade over and join him. She took a minute to dump the water out of her boots, and then she lead the way further into the dark part of the mine. The pathway got narrow, the ceiling lowering, but eventually Nora passed through a doorway and stopped with a soft gasp.

MacCready edged past her to see what she was looking at and let out a low whistle. The quarry opened up into a huge natural cavern, the far wall barely visible in the faint light that emanated from below. Looking down, MacCready could see abandoned mining equipment scattered far below, with the occasional lantern flickering here and there. Water was collecting in the stone far to their right, and someone had set up a generator for a water purifier as well as a spotlight that shone out across the water.

“Is there anyone down there?” MacCready whispered behind his hand, aware that any noise would likely echo easily in the huge space. Nora checked her PipBoy, then showed him that the radar was empty.

“There might be someone sitting still but I don't see anyone yet.”

“We should probably be careful anyway.”

They headed down the narrow trail that cutback down that face of the cavern, weapons in hand and ready.

The ground trembled under their feet and they stopped, looking at each other.

“The hell was that?” Nora finally whispered.

The ground trembled again, enough to make pebbles rattle on the ground at their feet.

“Maybe we should get out of here.” MacCready suggested uneasily.

“We’re so close though.” Nora looked longingly down at the area down below. There were two more switchbacks after they completed the one they were on, which was a good thirty feet above the path below.

Before MacCready could say anything, the ground rocked under their feet, throwing them both to the ground. The path cracked, crumbling beneath them. A chunk of the path that Nora was on started sliding towards the edge, and MacCready acted without thinking. He grabbed her by the shoulder of her jacket and heaved with all his might, nearly slinging her slight frame up onto the more stable path beside him. The movement and extra weight made the stone under him crack, and he barely had time to register the sensation of falling before the path thirty feet below came up to smack him into darkness.

***

He awoke to someone screaming his name from some distance. His eyes felt gritty and gummed shut and he was tired but he knew the owner of the voice would want him to respond. He pried his tired eyes open and blinked blearily. It was dark, with only the faintest of light allowing him to see outlines of boulders and rubble lying around him. The voice yelled his name again.

He opened his mouth to respond, but all that happened was a gasp, as if he had forgotten to breathe for a while. The voice called again.

Nora, he suddenly realized. Nora was calling for him. He didn't know why it had taken him so long to remember that it would have been her.

“Here.” He finally managed to wheeze. His mouth was dry and tasted like dirt. Something felt wrong, but his muddled brain wasn't cluing him in as to what it was yet. He tried a little louder. “I'm here!”

A green glowing light lit up the dark space above his head, and Nora’s head popped over the edge. She was still far away, but he could see her pinched, worried expression even from here.

“ _MacCready_! Are you okay?”

MacCready could only look up at her for a moment, his brain slowly processing everything.

“I fell.” He finally said thickly, more in surprise than anything.

“ _No shit!_ ” Nora screeched. “Are you okay?”

“Think I blacked out.” MacCready was slowly regaining his senses, but still felt like his brain was wrapped in cotton.

“How bad is it? What hurts?”

MacCready frowned at that, trying to take stock of himself.

“I- I don't think-” He tried to reach up to touch his head, but stopped when something that shouldn't have moved _moved_ in his arm. “Oh.”

_Oh._

It was like his pain receptors had suddenly flipped on like a switch, flooding his brain with signals and messages that all culminated in _oh God that hurts, this hurts._

“MacCready! Talk to me!”

“Boss,” he might have said. He wasn't really sure what else came out of his mouth but it might have been variations of ‘ _its bad_ ’ and ‘ _help_ ’.

He heard Nora take what sounded like a flying leap, boots scuffing stone overhead, then her running footsteps faded away, leaving him alone in near pitch blackness. 

He tried to clear his mind enough to do an inventory on what did and didn't hurt. It hurt to breathe, and he couldn't draw in enough breath. His left thigh was pinned under something heavy, leaving his whole leg painfully numb. He was vaguely aware of a few other pains and aches, including his head, but the worst by far was his right arm. He was certain it was broken, but the darkness made it difficult to see how bad it was. Any movement sent knives of pain along the entire length of his arm, making his head reel.

He started shivering suddenly, chilled to the bone and aching. The tremors sent pain crackling along his nerves, and he distantly heard himself whimper.

Where was Nora? Had she left him? If he was being honest with himself, he wouldn't entirely blame her if she had cut her losses and run.

Just as he had resigned himself to his slow and painful death, a green glow lit up the stones around him, moving up and down and flailing all over the stone around him as if someone was running and searching frantically.

“MacCready?” Nora sounded panicked. He tried to respond but the only thing that came out was a broken wheeze. It must have been enough because she found him within seconds, crashing to her knees beside him.

“RJ…” Her hands hovered as if wanting to touch him but was afraid to, expression stricken. Her PipBoy was lighting up the area, and he weakly lifted his head to see the large piece of rubble on his left leg. He let his head drop back down, the effort of even that small move draining him and leaving him trembling even worse.

“Don't move.” Nora ordered, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a second, bracing herself. MacCready turned his head to look at his right arm, and immediately wished he hadn't. Nora reacted near instantly, quickly but carefully turning his head away. “And don't look. I don't need you puking on me right now.”

He breathed hard and fast through his nose, trying hard not to do just that.

Nora wrapped something around his upper arm and cinched it tight, drawing a hiss of pain from him. She tied off the tourniquet and then did the same to his left thigh, uncomfortably high, but there wasn't much choice.

Something soft and heavy was draped over him, and he realized Nora had removed her long leather jacket and was tucking it around him, leaving his busted arm uncovered.

“No-” His voice was not reliable, cracking and wavering in pain. “Keep it.”

“You're going into shock. I need to keep you warm.” Nora was rummaging through her pack again.

Another tremor rumbled ominously, sending a few small rocks tumbling from above. Nora paused, looking up into the darkness, waiting to see if it would get worse.

“It's okay.” MacCready hoarsely whispered. “You should go. It's okay.”

Nora's attention snapped to him then, and she leaned over him and placed her palms on either side of his face so he had to look her directly in the eye. 

“Robert Joseph MacCready, don't you ever insult me like that again.” She said intensely. “I'm not leaving you. You're going to be okay. You understand me?”

“Yeah.” He rasped, feeling the sting of tears behind his eyes. “Thanks, boss.”

“I'm going to find something to lever the rock off your leg. Just don't move, and stay awake, okay?”

“Okay.”

She was gone for about ten minutes, which crawled by for MacCready. The cold from the floor was seeping into him, and being damp from the waist down from their earlier dip was not helping matters any. His trembling didn't subside, and it was wreaking havoc on his broken arm, sending ripples of pain through him. He was barely aware of Nora when she returned.

He became acutely aware of her, however, when she started working on his arm. His teeth gritted, and he tried very hard not to scream, with debatable success. The tourniquet had rendered his arm mostly numb, but it wasn't numb _enough_.

“The stimpack might be enough to set it,” she started hesitantly.

“Set it.” MacCready had seen what happened when the stimpack wasn't enough; misshapen limbs that often times had to be rebroken or even amputated later anyway. “Please.”

She nodded in understanding, and took her time positioning her hands before she suddenly _yanked_ his arm, hard enough that it felt like she would dislocate his shoulder, and something popped.

His scream was sharp and short, and he was pretty sure he blacked out because when he opened his eyes again Nora was positioning a long steel pole and a wheelbarrow to lever the rock off his leg. She placed the wheelbarrow upside down beside him, opposite of the stone, and jammed the end of the pole into an uneven edge of the stone and leaned it against the sturdy frame of the wheelbarrow. She looked at MacCready and saw him watching her. 

“You ready?” She asked.

“Not really.” He said hoarsely. “Do it anyway.”

She tested the strength of her contraption, making sure that nothing would give or slide, then flipped the rock off his leg with one strong motion. The relief of having the weight gone was brief; only moments later the nerves in his leg were screaming.

It was agony. Every muscle in his body tensed, arching his back, clenching the fist on his good arm, the tendons in his neck standing out. It was a long time before he remembered to breathe, hiccuping a gasping breath. Nora was talking, saying something to him, but he couldn't hear her anymore. He was vaguely aware of the tourniquets being loosened, then a stimpack was injected into his neck.

Muscles and tendons snapped back into place and bone knitted back together and torn flesh became whole. He took a gasping breath, and then another when it didn't hurt as badly as before. His arm and leg were still beacons of pain, but a quick glance at his arm told him the compound fracture was closed at least.

Nora inspected his arm and leg again, then pulled out another stimpack.

“I'm okay.” He tried to keep his voice steady but there was a decided hitch to it. “Save it.”

Nora gave him an exasperated look and stuck him with it anyway.

The relief from pain let his muscles relax, leaving him boneless on the ground. His eyelids drooped, and he felt like he could sleep for a day despite the coldness.

“RJ, you can't sleep here.” Nora sounded apologetic. “It's too cold, and the tremors might start again.”

“Okay.” He knew she was right. She helped him sit up and he looked dully at his legs. The left thigh of his pants was torn and still glistening with fresh blood, but whatever wound had been there was gone. The skin on his arm and thigh were still shiny with newness, but he knew it wouldn't take long for it to either fade away completely or into a faint scar. He picked at his still damp pants.

“Either I pissed myself or the raiders were pissing in that water.” He absently commented, wrinkling his nose at the smell. “Honestly could be either.”

Nora's head dropped and her shoulders shook, but he wasn't sure if she was laughing or crying. It lasted long enough that he got concerned.

“You okay?”

She abruptly grabbed him by the front of his jacket.

“Don't ever do that to me again!”

“Whoa!” MacCready was genuinely startled by her abruptness for once and nearly fell over despite still sitting on his ass. “What do you mean?”

“That self sacrificing shit!” She shouted, letting go of him and getting to her feet to pace. “If you had- If I hadn't-” She kept starting and stopping, unable to finish, unable to say it.

MacCready managed to get his feet under him and only wobbled a bit with weariness. Now that he looked around where he had been lying, he could see that he had lost a _lot_ of blood. It explained his lightheadedness anyway. 

“That's what you pay me for, boss.” MacCready tried to joke, offering her a way to lighten up, but she was already shaking her head. 

“No.” Nora was adamant. “That is not what I pay you for. If I'm stupid enough to get killed, I expect you to take what you can and run. Take my pack, the PipBoy, and barring that take your life and go.”

“Boss-”

“You have Duncan to worry about!” Nora tried again, desperately. “I'm not going to be the one that causes you to be taken away from him.”

MacCready subsided at that, and watched her pace, thinking.

“Nora,” MacCready finally began, slowly, “I wouldn't have Duncan to worry about if it wasn't for you. I owe you that. And, I, uh, I've… come to like you. Maybe more than a hired gun should.”

Nora stopped pacing, her mouth dropping open, stunned, but he plowed on before he could chicken out.

“Nothing needs to change, I just want you to know, I've got your back. I'm here ‘til the end.”

Nora just looked at him. MacCready nervously fidgeted with his binoculars on his belt, wondering if he went too far, wishing he had kept his fat mouth shut.

“MacCready, can I kiss you?” Nora whispered with what felt like no warning.

MacCready’s mouth went dry, fingers twitched, even as his heart sang _yes, yes, yes_ , but he couldn't make the words come out. He nodded mutely instead, hoping it was enough, and evidently it was as she stepped forward and gently kissed him on the mouth.

Their lips were dry and cracked but as warm as the cavern was cold. His heart felt like it would burst from his chest. Her arms tentatively circled his waist as they deepened the kiss, and he wrapped his arms around her. The cavern was dark and cold and his foot was in a small puddle of his own blood and they both smelled vaguely of piss and as far as MacCready was concerned it couldn't have been more perfect.

Nora broke the kiss eventually, pulling back and searching his face, a watery smile breaking across her face at what she saw on his.

“Wow.” He blurted, and immediately felt stupid, but she buried her face in his shoulder as she laughed.

“Okay, we need to get out of here.” Nora pulled away from him, abrupt as ever. “We can talk more about this tonight. We have a lot to talk about.”

“What about the loot?” MacCready peered down at the cavern floor, closer than it had been. Some of the lanterns had gone out, but the generator stubbornly chugged away and the spotlight had fallen over but was shining across the floor helpfully.

“Maybe we should get out of here.” Nora said reluctantly, keeping her eyes carefully off the floor and blood where they were standing. “I don't think I want to clean out a quarry, ever again.”

“Don't talk like that.” MacCready grabbed her hand and held it tight. “I'm fine, now. I almost died for this, I better get paid for it.”

Nora laughed shakily. “Spoken like a true merc. Fine, let’s go.”

They picked their way to the bottom of the quarry and quickly picked up every carryable piece of value, and even found a chest with some valuable weapons in it. Nora picked over a few, putting some in her pack and setting others aside, before coming across a leather belt holster with a decent sized hunting knife in it. She drew the blade to inspect it, and started laughing helplessly.

“What?” MacCready tried to look at it over her shoulder.

“This belongs to you. It’s fitting.”

“You know I don’t like fighting up close.” He complained but took it anyway.

“I know, we’ll practice later. Just read the inscription on the blade.”

The blade surprisingly had no rust on it, lovingly cared for and perfectly preserved in its sheath, and etched in a tiny and somewhat shaky font on the blade read ‘Have a knife day!’.

MacCready looked at Nora.

“It’s _really_ terrible.” He said. “I like it.”

“If nothing else, it should get you a decent amount of caps.”

MacCready strapped the belt around his waist and tucked the tail in, pleased with the fit. “Nah, I think I’ll keep it. I’ll take you up on that practising later, though.”

“Deal.” Nora grinned widely at him, and he realized his world was feeling a whole lot brighter all of a sudden, despite still being at the bottom of quarry. “Let’s get out of here.”

**Author's Note:**

> The quarry described is a figment of my imagination so don’t worry about trying to figure out which one I’m talking about! Just to clear that up. The idea is that it’s a large natural cavern with a path hewn into the stone for heavy equipment to drive to the bottom. There would have been a wider path for crews and equipment at one point but that has caved in over the years. What is at the bottom of the cavern that could be of enough value for such an undertaking.... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
